Fievel, The Private Eye
by TheFndObsCmdn
Summary: Fifteen-year-old Fievel Mouskewitz is bored with the way his life is going. He has a menial job and a routine life. Until he meets a girl who's investigating the semi-recent murder of her brother. Will he survive the adventure she takes him on? Please R
1. Lorena

Fievel, The Private Eye

Chapter 1: Lorena

Fievel Mouskewitz woke up one morning feeling refreshed and relaxed after a good night's sleep. He got out of bed, bathed himself, and ate breakfast. But Fievel had a problem. He felt he had his entire day planned out before he woke up in the morning. He knew exactly what he was going to do every day before he got out of his bed. He knew he would bathe himself, eat breakfast, go to work, eat lunch, work more, come home, eat dinner, and go to bed. He felt bored by his routine life. He knew he couldn't expect the life of a fifteen-year-old Russian immigrant mouse to be very exciting, but Fievel thought that his was an illegally boring life. He had nothing else to do, even if he had spare time. His best cat friend, Tiger, left a couple weeks ago to go live with his new wife, Ms. Kitty, and his best mouse friend, Tony, was too busy with his job and taking care of his newborn daughter to take any time for Fievel.

So Fievel set out to work. He had a nice job at a fruit stand at the local marketplace. He helped the owner, a man by the name of Mr. Hollows, by watching the stand and helping customers. Fievel arrived at the food stand to meet a very cheery looking Mr. Hollows.

"Fievel!" he said eagerly when Fievel arrived. "I need you to watch the stand while I go get some fruit. We're getting two whole oranges, a couple dozen grapes, and an apple."

"Okay, Mr. Hollows," said Fievel. "How long will you be gone?"

"Probably for about two hours or so," said Mr. Hollows. And with this, he walked off quickly down the street. Normally, no one would be getting so excited over a couple oranges and an apple, but mice couldn't eat whole fruit in one sitting. They had to chop the fruit up and sell it piece by piece.

Fievel sat down in the chair behind the stand and leaned back in it. He knew he wouldn't have to do much today. Today was a Monday. He knew that Mondays were always the quietest days for the fruit stand.

So Fievel spent the next hour sitting behind the counter and cleaning and stacking the fruit pieces. After that Fievel just sat in his chair, waiting for customers. After another half hour, or maybe it was ten minutes, Fievel was too bored to tell the difference, a girl about the same age as Fievel walked up to the stand.

"Hello," she said to Fievel, who was sitting in a leaned-back position in his chair with his hat over his eyes. He jerked up at this, but he lost his balance and fell backward in the chair. The girl gave a small chuckle at this. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, sorry, hi," said Fievel. "How can I help you?"

"I need two orange pieces, two grapes, and a pear piece," she said. Fievel started gathering the fruit pieces into a bag. "Won't your boss get mad at you if he finds you sleeping on the job?"

"Not today, and for two reasons," said Fievel slyly. "Firstly, he's not here right now. And secondly, today is always our quietest day. He'd probably tell me to wake up, but he wouldn't punish me or anything. It's too quiet today. You're the first customer."

"Oh, do I get some sort of special discount for that?" she asked as he turned to gather the fruit into a bag.

"I don't know," said Fievel as he turned back to her with a smug smile. "How does I pay half and you pay half sound?"

"It sounds too nice," she said with an equally smug smile. "How about I pay three-fourths and you cover the last quarter?"

"Sounds great," said Fievel. He gave her the bag of fruit and she gave him the money. She turned to leave and accidentally dropped her purse. She started to lean down to pick it up, but Fievel stopped her.

"No, no, I got it," said Fievel as he bent down and retrieved her purse. He was handing it over to her when he noticed how abnormally heavy it was.

"Hey, how much money you got in there?" he asked her.

"Enough," she replied.

"Okay then," said Fievel. "But be careful with it."

"What, you think I can't take care of myself?" she asked slyly.

"I don't know," said Fievel. "I haven't seen you around here, or anywhere for that matter. But this neighborhood can get rough sometimes. Watch out for muggers and robbers when you've got that much money on you."

"Haha," she laughed. "If someone tried to rob or mug me, they wouldn't know what hit them." Fievel smiled. Then he heard Mr. Hollows call him.

"Fievel, I'm not paying you to flirt with pretty girls," he said. "Get back to work." The girl gave a small chuckle and turned to leave again.

"Bye..." she started."Hey, I never caught your name."

"Oh, Fievel," said Fievel. "Fievel Mouskewitz."

"I'm Lorena," she replied. "Bye Fievel." She walked away and Mr. Hollows walked over to the counter.

"So, who is she?" he asked Fievel.

"She was a customer," said Fievel. "And I wasn't flirting with her."

"Sure," said Mr. Hollows sarcastically with a grin.

"I wasn't," said Fievel defensively.

"You know what I like about you, Fievel?" Mr. Hollows said. "You're the worst liar ever." Fievel took the opportunity to change the subject.

"So why are you back so early?" asked Fievel.

"Getting the fruit chopped up didn't take as long as I planned," Mr. Hollows replied. "Now go on, get back to work. I'm waiting for a delivery boy to come by in a few minutes with the new fruit." Mr. Hollows walked into the building that the fruit stand sits in front of that was his house. Fievel did as he was told. He went back outside and waited for the fruit delivery. After it arrived, Fievel started stacking it. Then he heard a familiar voice.

"I never knew that you could be so smooth with girls," Fievel turned around and found his friend, Tony Toponi, waiting at the stand.

"I wasn't being smooth," said Fievel. "You saw that?"

"Yep," said Tony. "What's her name?"

"Lorena," said Fievel. "And she was just a customer."

"Sure," said Tony in a sarcastic voice, much like Mr. Hollows.

"So why aren't you at work?" asked Fievel.

"Whole office closed down for the day," said Tony. "Somethin' wrong with the printin' machine." Tony had had a job as a reporter at the local newspaper since Fievel was eight years old.

"Ah," said Fievel. "So what are you doing here?"

"Well, I thought I'd pop by and pay you a visit," said Tony. "But when I saw you talkin' to that girl, I thought I'd stand back and watch. In retrospect, I think I should have gone in and worked as your wingman."

"Yeah, but there's one problem with that," said Fievel.

"What?" asked Tony.

"I didn't need a wingman," said Fievel. "She was just a customer."

"Yeah," said Tony. "A customer to whom you gave a discount. And you picked her purse up for her and told her to be careful and watch out for muggers."

"She was the first customer of the day," said Fievel defensively.

"Since when has you or Hollows ever given a discount for that?" asked Tony.

"You gave her a discount?" said Mr. Hollows as he came back out from his house.

"Yeah," said Fievel sheepishly. "I'll pay for it."

"And you said you weren't flirting with her," said Mr. Hollows with a grin. "Like I said, Fievel. Worst liar ever." He walked off down the street leaving Fievel alone with Tony.

"Flirting?" asked Tony in an interested voice. "You were flirting with her?"

"He said 'wasn't'," said Fievel.

"Which is what you said," said Tony. "So were you flirting with her?"

"I plead the fifth," said Fievel.

"Okay, then," said Tony.

"Are you gonna be free tonight?" asked Fievel in an attempt to change the subject.

"Yeah, you can come over," said Tony. "Have dinner with me, Bridget, and Elizabeth. And if you want to, you can bring your new girlfriend with you. Bridget always makes more than enough food."

"Okay, I won't," said Fievel casually. "I'll see ya later, Tony."

"Okay, bye, Philly," said Tony, calling Fievel by his American nickname. Tony walked off into the street, leaving Fievel alone at the fruit stand. Fievel stayed for a few more hours, dealing with what little customers came, and took off when Mr. Hollows told him he could go. Fievel was heading for Tony's house when he saw Lorena again. She was going down a dark, empty street. Fievel decided to follow her. Maybe he did want to bring her around to Tony's for dinner.

He looked down the street she had gone down and saw her by Mr. Body's shop, the biggest sandwich shop in the city. He thought he saw her go into the shop, but Fievel knew it was closed by now. He ran down to the shop quietly and looked in the front door. Everything was dark and the door was still locked. Fievel was about to walk away when he heard whispering coming from the alley on the right side of the shop. Fievel looked down the alley. It was pitch dark and it had a dead end. But Fievel knew he had heard something down it.

"Hello?" whispered Fievel. "Lorena, is that you?" Fievel started advancing down the alley.

"Lorena?" whispered Fievel again. Then he was startled by the ignition of a lantern toward the end of the alley. He saw Lorena crouched down at the end with the lantern in her hands.

"Oh, Fievel, it's only you," she said, sounding relieved. "What are you doing here?"

"I thought I saw you break into the sandwich shop," said Fievel. "I came to see what you were doing. And I sort of wanted to ask you to dinner."

"Two things," said Lorena quietly. "One, I didn't break into the sandwich shop, obviously. Two, I can't go to dinner with you. I'm a bit tied up with something else."

"Which is?" asked Fievel curiously.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," said Lorena.

"Try me," said Fievel.

"I'm conducting a murder investigation," said Lorena.

"What?" whispered Fievel. "Who's been murdered?"

"My brother," said Lorena. And before Fievel could reply back with either a question or a statement of disbelief, they both heard an angry Mr. Bodsy.

"Who's back there?" he shouted angrily. They saw a lantern light shining from around the corner. It was coming closer. Then Lorena had a less-than-ideal idea.

"Fievel, I'm really sorry about this and I need you to know that it means absolutely nothing and I want you to just play along as best as you can," she said quickly. Fievel had no idea what she meant and before he could think about it, Lorena grabbed him by the collar, pulled him down to the ground, braced her back against the alley wall, put his hand on the wall, pulled him towards herself, embraced him, and started kissing him.

TO BE CONTINUED...


	2. Answers

Chapter 2

Answers

Fievel's mind was immediately wiped of all thought processes imaginable. He vaguely remembered being told to play along a few seconds ago and tried to follow these directions to the best of his ability. Then Mr. Bodsy's lantern light flooded over them and Lorena grabbed Fievel's collar again, but this time she pushed him away.

"What the-?" started Mr. Bodsy before he was interrupted by Lorena.

"Do you mind?" she asked somewhat rudely. "Can't we have some privacy?"

"Not on my property," retorted Mr. Bodsy. "Now you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here. Go on, get!" Then a second person entered the alley. They heard him walk up behind Mr. Bodsy and saw him peek his head over Mr. Bodsy's shoulder. It turned out to be none other than Tony.

"So that's where ya been, Philly," said Tony. "Does this count as flirting?" Fievel didn't reply. He was in a somewhat dazed stupor as he was still covering from the shock of Lorena kissing him.

"It's okay, Mr. Bodsy," said Tony. "I'll take these two." He walked over to Lorena and Fievel and helped them both up off the ground and, unbeknownst to everyone, including Fievel who was trying to catch up with reality, gave Fievel a hidden high five of congratulations on his first kiss. He walked out of the alley with them and started walking down the street. They were all around the corner when Fievel finally caught up with reality.

"Tony, you can't tell my parents about this," burst out Fievel.

"Okay then," said Tony. "But no more smoochin' in alleys for you two. So how long were you guys back there?"

"Two minutes," said Fievel.

"Ten minutes," said Lorena.

"Well which is it?" asked Tony.

"Ten," said Lorena. Fievel looked at her with a confused look and she gave him a look that told him very clearly to shut up and agree. He listened.

"Yeah," continued Lorena. "Fievel found me after he left for off work. We talked a little, he asked me out to lunch tomorrow, we found somewhere to be alone, and the rest is history."

"You guys didn't... Uh..." said Tony. "I mean you weren't gonna..." It was silent for a moment before Lorena got what Tony meant.

"No!" she said defensively. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No way. No!"

"Okay," said Tony quickly. "Sorry. Had to ask."

"What?" asked a confused Fievel.

"Ya know, I forget how much of a sheltered child you are," said Tony with a chuckle.

"Okay, I gotta go home now," said Lorena.

"Oh, c'mon, please come to my house for dinner," said Tony. "He won't admit it, but he would be really devastated if you didn't come. He's a terribly impatient little fella and he can't wait until tomorrow for lunch." Lorena stood and thought about it for a while before she finally replied.

"Okay, fine," she said in a voice that feigned sympathy. "For you, Fievel." Tony laughed and they started walking to Tony's house. When they got there, they had milk, cheese, and some fruit. After they were done with dinner, Fievel volunteered to walk Lorena home, for which he suffered a couple annoying remarks from Tony, but Fievel wanted to get some time alone with her to ask her a couple questions.

"So what are you up to?" asked Fievel when they were out of earshot of Tony's house.

"Wow, you get straight to the point," Lorena said. "I told you. I'm investigating my brother's murder."

"Oh yeah, that's very helpful," said Fievel sarcastically. "Especially since I totally believe you."

"Well, I'm not saying you have to," said Lorena. "You can go home if you want. We both know you only did this so you can interrogate me."

"Because I think that you at least owe me an explanation," said Fievel.

"Why?" asked Lorena.

"Because in the last three hours, you managed to get us caught kissing in an alley," said Fievel. "And you set up a lunch date for us tomorrow."

"Well if you don't want to go to lunch tomorrow, you don't have to," said Lorena. "That was just to sell the deception."

"Well now I have to 'cause you told Tony," said Fievel. "If I don't go tomorrow, I won't hear the end of it from him."

"Okay, fine," said Lorena. "What do you wanna know?"

"Everything," said Fievel. "Start at the beginning with the context of your brother's murder."

"Okay," started Lorena. "My brother, Milo, was murdered in New Jersey two years ago. He was doing some freelance investigation for the police here. He was investigating potential safe houses for prisoners that were smuggled out of prison. He said he was on to a good suspect when he was visiting my family in New Jersey for a week. Then, two days into the visit, his body's found with a shard of glass through his heart. The police investigated, but I don't think they did a good enough job."

"So you took up the investigation," said Fievel.

"I found a list of suspects that my brother had made of people he thought might have run a safe house for escaped prisoners," said Lorena. "I think that he was getting close and whoever was running the safe house killed him to cover their tracks."

"Okay, so who are the suspects?" asked Fievel.

"Almost all the private business owners in town," said Lorena. "And all the private food business owners in town."

"Why are they suspects?" asked Fievel.

"Well private business owners, like owners of inns, can hide prisoners and keep them sustained for a considerable amount of time in one of their spare rooms," said Lorena. "But private food business owners can do basically the same thing, but they have an easier access to food for their prisoner and they don't have to worry about people coming and going around their hiding places because customers of food businesses don't tend to enter the owner's home very often."

Okay," said Fievel. "So we're looking for evidence of a private business owner who smuggled escaped prisoners two years ago." He sounded skeptical.

"Or evidence that puts one of them in the area of the murder at the time of the murder," said Lorena. "Or someone who is still smuggling prisoners."

"Nope," said Fievel. "We don't have prisoners anymore. Major jailbreak a year and a half ago. The city never rebuilt the jail. They just exile criminals for a certain amount of time. No trans-city passport, no ID, just the clothes on their backs. They have to fend for themselves for a set amount of time before they can come back. Some are exiled for life and that's basically a death sentence."

"Okay, so we're not looking for that," said Lorena. "But if we can find something to prove that one of them was in the area of the murder at the time of the murder, we can have the police here investigate."

"Okay," said Fievel. "So how did you convince your parents to let you come here on this insane investigation?"

"My parents have been dead for a year," said Lorena. "I live in a mansion where I'm a maid for a very rich mouse. I told him about the list and he was sympathetic to my cause and told me to take as much time as I needed. Unfortunately, I've only got enough money to live here in a small inn for a week still."

"Ah, so we're on a deadline," said Fievel.

"Yeah," said Lorena. She and Fievel walked together in silence until they reached the inn she was staying at.

"Bye, Fievel," Lorena smiled as she walked into the inn and closed the door behind her.

"Bye," whispered Fievel to the closed door with a smile. He walked to his home, greeted his parents and little sister when he arrived, explained that he had dinner at Tony's house, and went to bed. He fell asleep happy, like he knew he had found what he was looking for to get him out of his routine, but it was more than just the fact that he was helping investigate a murder. He liked something about Lorena. He didn't know what or why, he just liked her.

Fievel decided to sleep on this, so he undressed and lay down in his bed. His bedroom consisted of his bed, which was the bottom bunk of a bunk bed, and a hollowed out space in the wall next to his bed that served as a shelf where he could put all his stuff. He used to have to share a bed with his sister, Tanya, but she left home half a year ago with a group of traveling performers.

He drew the curtain that hung from the frame of the top bunk and hid his bed from sight. He then laid his head on his pillow and fell asleep feeling excited for the next day.

To Be Continued...


	3. Suspect

Chapter 3

Suspect

Fievel awoke the next morning feeling ready for the day ahead of him. He bathed himself, ate breakfast, and left for work. He ran all the way to the fruit stand and met Mr. Hollows there, who told him to watch the stand while he met with his supplier, Johnny, who stole fruit from the humans on the surface, chopped it up, and distributed it throughout this city and the other cities around it. Fievel watched the stand for the morning, but he couldn't wait for lunch to come.

Finally lunch came and Lorena met Fievel at the lunch stand.

"So, where do you want to have our fake lunch?" asked Lorena.

"How about here?" asked Fievel. "I can take some fruit and pay for it later."

"Okay," said Lorena. She took a chair and moved it to the other side of the counter.

"Hey, I was thinking about the criteria you gave me for your suspects last night," said Fievel. "And it occurred to me that Mr. Hollows might be one of them."

"Yep," said Lorena. "He's next on the list. Mr. Bodsy was innocent, so he's next."

"How do you know Bodsy's innocent?" asked Fievel.

"Because when I was sifting through his junk in the alley last night, I found some business documents about transactions that he had had here in the city at the time of the murder," said Lorena. "That means that I'm gonna need your help investigating Hollows. I'm gonna follow up on some other leads, but I need you to get something that either proves him guilty or innocent."

"Alright," said Fievel. "But I can tell you it's not him."

"Do you have physical proof?" asked Lorena.

"No," said Fievel.

"Then find some," said Lorena.

"How?" asked Fievel.

"Ask him some questions," said Lorena. "Go through his junk. Look in places where you might find old business documents. Anything. I don't care."

"Ask him what questions?" asked Fievel. "'Hey, Mr. Hollows. You didn't murder a young mouse a couple years ago, did you?'"

"It's a start," said Lorena. "Ask him if he's been to New Jersey recently or something to do with prisoner smuggling."

"Okay, fine then," said Fievel.

"Good," said Lorena. "Now, it's time for me to ask you some questions."

"Shoot," said Fievel.

"Why does Tony call you 'Philly'?" she asked. Fievel smiled. For the next half-hour, she and Fievel talked casually to each other. They just had a normal lunch. Then she had to leave and Fievel had to get back to work. Fievel waited for about a half hour before Mr. Hollows came back.

"Hello, Fievel," said Mr. Hollows. "So how was your date?"

"Fine," said Fievel.

"Oh, good," said Mr. Hollows. He went into his house and Fievel followed him in, hoping for an interview.

"Uh, Mr. Hollows, sir," said Fievel. Mr. Hollows jumped and turned around.

"Oh, Fievel, don't do that to me," he said. "What do you want?"

"Well, I just wanted to ask you a question," said Fievel. "See, I've been trying to convince my papa to take me and my family to New Jersey and I was wondering if you've ever been to New Jersey because I wanted to know your opinion about it."

"Well, I did go to New Jersey a couple years ago on a business trip," said Mr. Hollows. "It was nice enough. But I don't have very good memories about it. My business there didn't go very well."

"When did you go there?" asked Fievel. "I mean, what month?"

"I went in early August," said Mr. Hollows.

"Okay, thank you," said Fievel. He walked out the door and went back to watching the stand. He worked for about five more hours before Mr. Hollows told him he could go. So Fievel left. He met up with Lorena on his way home and told her about what Mr. Hollows said.

"What month was your brother murdered?" asked Fievel after he told her what Mr. Hollows said.

"Early August," she said quietly. "I think he may be our guy."

"What about your other leads you talked about earlier?" asked Fievel.

"Dead ends, all of them," said Lorena.

"Okay, I'll do some more snooping around tomorrow," said Fievel.

"Okay," said Lorena. "I think we should call it a day for now."

"Okay," said Fievel. "I'll see you tomorrow." They parted ways and Fievel headed home.

When Fievel arrived home, he ate dinner with his family. He neglected to tell his parents about Lorena and her brother's murder. After he ate dinner, he got ready to go to bed. He lay on his bed and thought about how Lorena said Mr. Hollows was a suspect. Fievel knew he wasn't.

But I have only known him for a couple weeks, Fievel thought to himself. And I have heard that he has a reputation for pulling crazy stunts to save his fruit stand before, but could he really take it all the way up to murder? Fievel had an ominous feeling about the next day. He didn't know why, but he felt like tomorrow wasn't going to be a good day at all. Fievel undressed and got into his bed. He laid his head on his pillow and fell asleep with this uneasy feeling.

TO BE CONTINUED...


	4. Curiosity Killed The Mouse

CHAPTER 4

Curiosity Killed The Mouse

Fievel woke up the next morning feeling exactly the same. He had a feeling that something bad would inevitably happen today. Like if he didn't want it to happen, he shouldn't take another step out the door for the entire day. But he ignored this feeling and went through his morning routine like normal. When he got to the fruit stand, Mr. Hollows told Fievel that he had to go help Johnny steal some fruit and that he would probably be gone until evening and that Fievel had to look after the stand until he got back. Fievel saw this as an opportunity to do some snooping around later.

So Fievel looked after the stand, a little angry that Mr. Hollows had to be gone on the busiest day of the week. Usually Mr. Hollows was there to help him deal with the large packs of customers. After a while, the line started to disappear as everyone who got tired of waiting went to lunch, and Fievel waited until the line was only a few people long and he told them that he had to leave for lunch and to come back later. Fievel went inside of Mr. Hollows' house and looked around. He searched through the desk in Mr. Hollows' study. He hadn't found anything when he heard the front door open and shut. Fievel panicked and hid under the desk and held his breath. He heard footsteps walk to the desk and stop in front of it.

"FIEVEL!" shouted a voice above the desk at the same as something hit the top of the desk very hard with a loud bang. Fievel jumped and hit his head on the bottom of the desk. The person who shouted ran to the other side of the desk and looked under it. Fievel looked up and saw Lorena staring down at him.

"Lorena!" said Fievel sharply. "You nearly scared me to death."

"That was the goal," said Lorena with a smile. She gave him her hand and started to help him up when Fievel felt his foot hit something on the floor and stopped her. He looked down and saw a book with a strip of tape across the cover. There had been a book taped to the underside of the desk and Fievel knocked it off when he hit his head. He picked it up and started skimming through it.

"What is it?" asked Lorena.

"It's Mr. Hollows' journal," said Fievel.

"Good," said Lorena excitedly. "Does he date the entries?"

"Yeah," said Fievel. "His last entry was a couple weeks ago."

"Okay," said Lorena. "Look to see if he wrote anything on or around August fourth two years ago." Fievel turned to front of the journal and looked through the early entries and found three entries between August first and sixth two years ago, but none one the fourth itself. He read the three entries he found.

"'Arrived in New Jersey today,'" Fievel read aloud from the first entry. "'Searching for private detective that has been asking questions about smuggling operations.'" Fievel heard Lorena gasp quietly. Fievel read the next entry that was dated on August third.

"'Found private detective,'" read Fievel. "'Going to confront him tomorrow. Hoping to be able to settle this civilly. May have to resort to drastic measures, though.'" Fievel read the last entry.

"'I killed the private detective today,'" Fievel read. "'His name was Milo. I regret having to do this, but I had no other choice. I left his body in the alley...'" Fievel stopped there. He heard Lorena sniff. He looked at each page again and saw a note that was scrawled in the lower corner of each page. They all said "Burn after writing.". Fievel tore each one out and folded them all and pocketed them.

"Well I guess he's our guy," said Lorena quietly.

"Yeah," said Fievel. Then they heard the door unlock and open. Fievel quietly told Lorena to hide under the bed on the other side of the room and he taped the journal back to the underside of the desk. He got up and met Mr. Hollows in the doorway to his study.

"Whoa!" shouted Mr. Hollows when he saw Fievel pop out in front of him. "Fievel, my gosh. You scared me again. Stop doing that. What are you doing in here? I thought you were out having lunch with that girl."

"No, she's not having lunch with me today," said Fievel. "I was looking for some food."

"Oh, okay," said Mr. Hollows. "It's in the kitchen down the hall."

"Right, sorry," said Fievel. "Hey, what are you doing back early?"

"I came back for lunch," said Mr. Hollows. "And I wanted to make sure that you were doing okay here on our busy day."

"I'm fine," said Fievel. He was about to leave when they heard a noose that stopped Fievel's heart in its beat. They heard a soft thump come from under the desk. Mr. Hollows and Fievel both knew what it was. Mr. Hollows went and looked under the desk and picked up the book. Fievel thought about running, but if he tried, Mr. Hollows would cut him off before he could get out the door. Mr. Hollows flipped through the journal and stopped at a place that Fievel knew was where he had torn the pages from. Fievel knew that what happened next wasn't going to be good and that there was a possibility he wouldn't be leaving this place alive. He backed up towards the bed slowly as Mr. Hollows set the journal down.

"It's very unfortunate that you saw that, Fievel," he said quietly. "Now I gotta take care of you too. You had to go snooping in my business, didn't you?"

"Why'd you kill him?" asked Fievel nervously.

"I had to," said Mr. Hollows. "It was either him or me."

"No it wasn't," said Fievel, changing from nervous to confident in a second. He knew that if he went down here, he wasn't going like some scared, little mouse. "Your life wasn't in any danger. You would have gone to prison. He could still be alive today. But you killed him to stay out of jail."

"The people I was smuggling had some mean friends that were still in prison," said Mr. Hollows. "They would have killed me while I was behind bars with them." Mr. Hollows picked up a small knife from his desk and slowly advanced on Fievel. Fievel backed up against the bed and sat down against it. He grabbed the folded up pages out of his pocket and pushed them under the bed, hoping that Lorena would grab them. He knew he was gonna die; why not let it happen so she could escape with the damning evidence.

"Now they don't have a prison," said Mr. Hollows. "I won't survive a day exiled outside. So now I need to kill you too." He slowly came up to Fievel, with knife in hand.

"I'm sorry, Fievel," he whispered quietly. Then he plunged the knife into Fievel's chest, right under his shoulder. Fievel opened his mouth, he felt his throat vibrate, but he didn't hear a scream. He couldn't hear anything. All he could feel was pain. The pain of the knife in his chest. He looked up and saw Mr. Hollows. Then he saw Mr. Hollows jerk back suddenly and then fall over on his side. Behind him was Lorena, holding a large book with both hands. She bent down toward him.

"I got the pages," she said. He could barely hear her. "I'll go get help. Hold on for a minute Fievel." He saw her run out of the room. Then he felt dizzy. He saw the room start to rotate in front of him and he felt the floor hit his face. His vision started to blur and he blacked out.

TO BE CONTINUED...


	5. Waking Up

Chapter 5

Waking Up

Fievel woke up feeling warm. He was laying on something soft. He opened his eyes and saw a bright light above him. The light felt warm and comforting.

Well, it's not like I wasn't expecting to wake up here, Fievel thought to himself. He tried to sit himself up, but was stopped by the searing pain in his shoulder and chest. He yelped with pain.

"He's awake!" someone near him said. They walked over to Fievel and helped him up. Fievel let his eyes adjust to the light and saw that he was in a hospital room. He was lying on a bed and the person who helped him up was Tony. The light and warmth was coming from the sunshine through the window next to his bed. He put his hand on his shoulder and felt bandages that were wrapped around his upper chest and shoulder.

"Tony?" said Fievel quietly. "What happened?"

"You got stabbed by that creep, Hollows, Philly," said Tony.

"Yeah, I knew that," said Fievel. "What happened after that?"

"After Hollows stabbed you, your girlfriend ran and got a cop and a doctor and basically saved your life," said Tony. "You've been out for two days. We've all been waiting for you to wake up. I'll go get your dad." He ran out of the room and left Fievel alone. Fievel sat back against the headboard. He waited for about five minutes before Tony came back with Fievel's father and sister, Tanya, in tow.

"Tanya!" said Fievel, surprised.

"Fievel!" yelled Fievel's father happily.

"Pap-" began Fievel, until he was smothered by his father's bear hug. "AAUUGGGHH!" Fievel screamed out of the pain in his shoulder as his father hugged him. His father backed off of him quickly.

"Sorry," said Fievel's father.

"Tanya, when did you get here?" asked Fievel.

"This morning," she replied. "I came as soon as I heard what happened."

"When did you hear?" he asked.

"Two nights ago," said Tanya.

"How?" asked Fievel. He knew there was no way she could have received any kind of letter about it on the night of the day he was stabbed.

"I know a guy," she said slyly. Fievel gave Tony a confused look.

"She won't tell us either," he said with a shrug. She smiled and sat down beside the bed.

"So what's gonna happen to Mr. Hollows?" asked Fievel.

"Hollows was arrested and they're gonna exile him for life in a day or two," said Tony. "They questioned him pretty roughly. He confessed to everything."

"Okay," said Fievel. "What about Lorena?"

"No one's seen hide nor tail of her since the day of the stabbing," said Tony. "We've been looking, but she's disappeared pretty thoroughly." Then, as if on cue, Lorena walked in the room.

"Hi, Fievel," she said quietly. "We got him."

"Yeah, we did," he replied equally as quietly. "Tony?" Tony looked up.

"Yeah?" said Tony.

"Could we have a minute alone?" asked Fievel.

"Sure," said Tony. He started coaxing Tanya and Fievel's father out the door. "C'mon, let's go, Mr. M. C'mon, Tanya, let's leave them alone. Go on." He ushered them out and closed the door behind them and stood by the door and watched Fievel and Lorena.

"Tony," said Fievel.

"Yeah?" asked Tony. Then a look of realization came over his face. "Oh! Sorry." He left the room and closed the door behind him.

"So what happens now?" asked Fievel.

"I don't know," said Lorena. "I guess I'll go back home."

"What if you lived with my family?" asked Fievel.

"How would that work?" she asked.

"My little sister could share my bed with me and you could have her bed until we could get you your own bed," said Fievel.

"Okay, so what do I tell my boss?" asked Lorena.

"Tell him that you found a better life in New York and that you won't be returning," said Fievel. "And that he should send your stuff up here."

"Well, I don't really have any stuff," said Lorena. "I don't know Fievel. I'm just not sure about it."

"Oh, c'mon," said Fievel. "Ever since Tanya left, my mama's been running the household single-handedly. She could really use some help. Especially help from a professional maid."

"I'll think about it," she said. She turned to head for the door when Fievel stopped her.

"Lorena, can you come here?" asked Fievel. She walked over to his bedside.

"What?" she asked.

"In the last three days-" said Fievel.

"Five," interrupted Lorena.

"Sorry, five," said Fievel. "We've been caught kissing in an alley together, we've gone to lunch together, we caught a murderer, and you saved my life. I just want to say thank you."

"The kiss and the date were fakes," said Lorena. "And I did save your life, after you tried to give it up so I could escape with mine. So you're welcome, and thank you for helping me."

"You're welcome," he said with a smile. She turned to leave, but Fievel grabbed her hand and stopped her again. "One more thing. Come closer." She leaned in toward him.

"My turn," he whispered. He took her hand, put it on the headboard, embraced her and brought her closer and started kissing her. And she kissed back.

THE END

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**Author's note: Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed my first fanfic! Please, please review!**


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